Maurene Comey (right), daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, leaves a courthouse in October 2025 in Alexandria, Virginia.
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Win McNamee/Getty Images
A federal judge in New York ruled Monday that the Justice Department illegally fired former prosecutor Maurene Comey, daughter of former FBI Director James Comey.
Maurene Comey was a federal prosecutor in Manhattan for about a decade, working on high-profile cases against defendants like Sean “Diddy” Combs, Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. Trump’s Justice Department fired her in July 2025, although she regularly receives department accolades for her work.
In response, she sued the Justice Department and others, arguing that her firing was illegal and unconstitutional. Her lawsuit says she was fired because her father is the former director of the FBI, a prominent critic of President Trump.
The Justice Department twice indicted the elder Comey. The first file was rejected. The second lawsuit, still pending, accuses him of threatening the president in a photo of seashells posted on social media.
In his ruling Monday, U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman, former President Barack Obama’s nominee, wrote that the Justice Department “invented a new and vast theory of executive power” by firing Maurene Comey, and violated her constitutional right to due process.
“To accept defendants’ argument would be to upset the very balance established by this nation’s constitutional system,” the judge wrote.
The notice adds to concerns about politically motivated firings within the DOJ. Several federal prosecutors and former FBI agents sued the DOJ during the Trump administration over their firings, alleging they were fired for political reasons related to their work.
Comey’s lawyers welcomed Monday’s ruling and said it reaffirms that the president must follow the law within the checks and balances of the Constitution.
“This hard-won victory belongs to Ms. Comey, to all public officials and to all those who fight for the rule of law,” her lawyers said in a statement.
The judge’s ruling calls for Comey to receive back pay from when she was fired last year, and to return as a prosecutor in the Southern District of New York, if she chooses.
The Justice Department said it disagreed with the decision and would appeal in due course.
The court order is not final. Judge Furman has not yet ruled on Maurene Comey’s First Amendment argument that she was fired for politically protected speech, and plans to hear further briefings on that claim.
—With help from NPR’s Carrie Johnson.
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